


Coming Out, Friendship Stylez (Styles with a Z)

by funnywithachanceofmurder



Series: A thousand push-ups (and a thousand more) [1]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: A thousand pushups, Amy lowkey saves the day, But it's mainly Rosa and Jake, Coming Out, Gen, Jake is a good friend, Rosa and Jake friendship, Rosa is a badass, background jake/amy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 20:04:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12991527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funnywithachanceofmurder/pseuds/funnywithachanceofmurder
Summary: He shrugs. “After last week, Amy went into full research mode,” he explains. “There might be a binder at our apartment. A bi-nder,” he repeats, emphasizing the first syllable. He chuckles to himself. “Get it?” Rosa just stares at him. “Sorry, is that offensive?” he asks, sobering slightly.Or, Rosa accidentally comes out to Jake (and the rest of the squad). He responds in true Jake fashion.





	Coming Out, Friendship Stylez (Styles with a Z)

**Author's Note:**

> So I've loved Brooklyn Nine-Nine since season one, but this is my first time writing for it. But Jake and Rosa are my favorite characters, and there aren't nearly enough friendship fics about the two of them, so when Rosa came out last week, I had to write something about the two of them navigating a new level of their friendship. Hence, this fic. Enjoy!

Rosa is sitting at her desk a few days after they’ve returned from their cross country road trip when Jake strolls in (late) looking smug. “Diaz, you must know by now that Boyle can’t keep a secret,” Jake announces as he walks into the bullpen. Rosa looks up, but Jake isn’t paying close attention to her, too busy grandstanding, and he misses the wide-eyed look of panic in her eyes. “And now I know yours!” he cries triumphantly, pointing at her from where he’s standing by his desk. 

“Boyle told you?” she says, tone a mix of anger and fear, but Jake breezes past it. Rosa’s tone is usually at least fifty percent anger, and he doesn’t notice the slight shaking in it at all. 

“He did!” Jake does a weird sort of maniacal laugh here. “That was his first mistake. Your first mistake was telling him in the first place,” he adds. “And now I know how to defeat you!” More strange, cartoon supervillain laughter. 

“What the fuck, Peralta?” Rosa snaps, moving out of fear and into one hundred percent anger. “Are you seriously going to use my sexuality as blackmail?”

“What?” Jake yelps loudly. 

“Boyle told you I’m bi, right? And now you’re making fun of me,” Rosa spits, pissed but also shocked that Jake would do this. 

“What?” Jake yelps again. He glances around the bullpen in confusion, but everyone is gone. He sees Amy ushering them outside, and silently sends her thanks for having the foresight to keep this conversation as private as it can be, but then he remember he hasn’t said anything else to Rosa. “No!” he shouts frantically. “No, no, no, no, God, Rosa, never!” She just stares at him, so he starts talking again. “I swear, Rosa, that wasn’t what I was talking about! Boyle told me you snore! After the sleepover, he said you were snoring, and I was just going to make some stupid joke about you liking motorcycles so much because you sound like them!” He’s pretty sure he’s shouting, but he can’t seem to rein in his panic. He needs her to understand that he would never throw that in her face. 

“He didn’t tell you I was bi,” she repeats flatly, and Jake nods frantically. She lets out a sigh of relief, but then she stiffens again when she realizes Boyle might not have told Jake, but she just did. She’s quiet, unsure what to say, and Jake doesn’t say anything either. The silence stretches on, but Jake has never been good at staying quiet. 

“I can’t believe you told Charles before me,” Jake finally says in an attempt to diffuse the tension that’s settled around them. “I’ve been waiting for you to tell me for years,” he says, the slightest hint of a whine in his voice. 

Rosa’s eyes snap up to him. “You knew?” she barks. 

“I mean, yeah,” Jake says. 

“How?” Rosa is quick to ask. 

“I’m a detective, Diaz,” he points out. “It was kind of obvious. Unless you weren’t dating that tall brunette girl with the sick tats?”

Rosa stares at him, trying to understand what’s happening. Jake’s description (unsurprisingly) fits more than one of her exes, so she’s not sure exactly who he’s talking about. “Who?” she asks weakly. 

“She used to pick you up from the academy sometimes,” he explains, and Rosa starts. That was definitely not the answer she was expecting. 

“That long?” She asks quietly. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Jake shrugs. “Not my style,” he says. 

Rosa opens her mouth to interject that it’s exactly his style to pry into other people’s personal lives, but then she looks at him standing there, fidgeting with his tie and rocking slightly back and forth on his heels, and she remembers a host of little things that seemed insignificant at the time, but now add up to the full picture of Jake Peralta. Like how he never joined in when the other guys at the academy tossed homophobic slurs around or belittled her for being a woman, and how he didn't balk when Holt came out to the squad, instead performing a (maybe misguided) attempt to understand the discrimination he faced through most of his career, even going so far as to punch his hero in the face when he tried to use Holt being gay against him. She realizes Jake’s right, and it’s not his style. She stares at him. 

“If you weren’t out to me, it’s because you weren’t ready to be out to me,” he says, like it’s the simplest thing in the world, and she finds herself wondering why more guys in the world aren’t like him. 

She’s not sure how to respond to him, so eventually she says, “Sorry.”

“No!” He yelps again. “Don’t apologize! I should be apologizing to you!”

“You don’t have to apologize, Peralta,” she says. 

“But I forced you to come out to me!” He cries. “It was an accident, but it’s still a shitty thing to do! I may be straight, but even I know that.” He’s emphatic, flapping his arms around, and if the whole situation wasn’t so serious, she’d laugh at how worried he looks. 

“Jake, seriously, it’s fine.” He doesn’t look convinced, so she keeps talking. “I knew when I told Charles that it’d only be a matter of time before I had to tell the rest of the squad.” This appears to placate him slightly, but he still looks concerned. 

“I hope you know it’s cool,” he starts to say. “I mean of course it’s cool, you do you. I mean I’m cool,” he says. “Or whatever. It’s no big deal,” he says. “Unless you think it’s a big deal, then it is. I don’t want to belittle your coming out. If that’s what this is,” he’s rambling now, and Rosa has the urge to laugh at him again, but she doesn’t, because it’s clear he’s trying desperately to be supportive. “What I’m trying to say is that I don’t care,” he says, and then immediately begins speaking again. “Not that I don’t care about you, because I do, obviously! Just that I don’t care that you’re bi, because it doesn’t matter,” he explains. “To me!” He cries suddenly. “I mean it doesn’t matter to me, not that it doesn’t matter!” His eyes are a little wild, and Rosa is starting to get concerned, but then he takes a deep breath and calmly says, “What I’m trying to say is that you’re still Rosa, whether you date dudes or girls or both or neither, and Rosa is my friend, no matter what.” 

This earns him a rare Rosa smile, and he beams in response. She assumes that’s the end of the conversation, but then Jake starts fiddling with his tie again. It’s clear he wants to say something else, and she hopes the nervousness emanating from his entire body doesn’t mean that he’s about to ask her an inappropriate or idiotic question, because he’s done too well up to this point to ruin it all by asking something stupid, like how lesbian sex works. 

He’s nearly as uncomfortable with emotions as she is, but he needs to say this next part, so he takes a deep breath and starts speaking again. “But, I need to ask you something,” he says slowly. She nods, steeling herself for whatever is about to come from his mouth. “I just need to make sure that the reason you didn’t tell me before now isn’t because you thought you couldn’t.”

That is the opposite of what she was expecting him to say, and as such, she’s not sure how to respond. “What?” she finally says after a long pause. 

He takes a deep breath. “It’s just that we’ve been friends for awhile now, and you never mentioned anything, and I want to make sure it wasn’t something I did,” he says. “Or said, or still do or say. Because I’m your friend. Other than Gina, you’re the person I’ve known the longest, and that means something to me, you know?” He pauses here for a moment and rubs the back of his neck with one hand. “And, God, Rosa, if I ever did anything or said anything that made you feel like it wasn’t safe for you to tell me, I’m so, so sorry.” He’s resumed rocking bath and forth on his heels, and he’s looking at her with earnest brown eyes that kind of make him look like a kicked puppy, and honestly he looks like he might cry at the thought of making her uncomfortable. “I want you to be able to trust me, and not just with work stuff,” he says. “A thousand push-ups, right?” he adds quietly. 

She nods. “I know," she says, and she does. "Me not telling you wasn’t about you, Peralta. It was about me,” she says. She pauses, reconsidering, because that’s not entirely true. “At least it was mostly about me,” she amends. “But the truth is you never really know how a person will react to you coming out,” she trails off. “And you are a straight white dude,” she adds after a moment. He nods. 

“A demographic not known for our tolerance,” he says with a grimace. “I get it.”

“I guess I was scared,” she admits, almost whispering, and Jake frowns. 

“Sorry the world is so shitty,” he says. 

“Me too,” she says wryly. “Anyway, it was less about being scared of your reaction and more being scared that things would change.”

Jake considers her words. “Nothing has to change,” he finally says. “You’re still Rosa. And you being bi is just a piece of that. It’s no more important to me than any of the other stuff I know about you. You’re a cop and you ride motorcycles and you hate push-ups and you like whiskey and you’re great at darts. That’s the stuff that makes you Rosa. Not who you date. And none of that has changed, so we don’t have to change, ok?” 

Rosa nods once. “Thank you,” she says, and he shrugs like it’s no big deal. It may not be to him, but it is to her. “And I do,” she adds. 

“Do what?” 

“Trust you,” she says. “A thousand push-ups, right?”

“A thousand push-ups,” he repeats with a wide grin. “So does this mean I can set you up with girls now?” He asks, all traces of seriousness gone from his tone. 

“No,” she says flatly, because they might have just had an emotional conversation, and maybe he saw her almost cry, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to let him insert himself into her personal life. 

“Aw, c’mon Diaz,” he wheedles. “I have this friend and I think you guys would really hit it off.” 

He’s still whining, but there’s an undercurrent of sincerity that must be the reason she says, “Which friend?” 

Jake grins triumphantly. “Funny story,” he says slowly. “We actually used to date,” he explains, widening his grin in an attempt to soften the blow of his words. 

Rosa shoots him a murderous glare. “Absolutely not.”

He pouts. “It’s no big deal,” he’s quick to say. “We dated when I was in my 20s. It didn’t work out, obviously. At the time I assumed it was my raging immaturity and crippling debt, but turns out it was because she doesn’t like guys. We’re still friends, though, and she’s awesome.”

“No way, Peralta!” She snaps. “There’s no way I’m going out with your sloppy seconds.”

“She’s not sloppy seconds!” He cries. “We never even slept together!” He pauses for a moment, looking thoughtful. “Which now makes way more sense.” 

She can’t help the snort of laughter that escapes at his comment, and he grins triumphantly. “Ha!” he cries. “So you’ll think about it?”

“I’m already dating someone,” she says after a long pause. “That’s how Charles figured this all out in the first place.”

Jake is practically vibrating with excitement when he asks, “You have a girlfriend?!” Rosa rolls her eyes. “Who is she? What's her name? What’s she like? How’d you meet her?” He asks the questions rapid fire, not even pausing for breath, but she’s saved from answering by his phone chirping. It’s Santiago’s custom ringtone, so he reaches for it without thinking. He stops halfway and turns back to Rosa. “Is it cool if I..” He points at the phone. 

Rosa nods, grateful for the distraction. This conversation has been much more emotional than she’s accustomed to, or would prefer, and she’s ready for things to go back to normal. 

He turns to his phone, reading the message with a soft smile on his face. She’s struck suddenly by just how much he loves Santiago. It’s odd, because the Jake she knew at the academy was full of, in his own words, raging immaturity, and swore he’d never settle down or get married and “give up his independence”. But this happiness is a good look on him, and she marvels at how far he’s come from the stupid kid she knew at the academy. 

“Amy wants to know if it’s all clear for her to let everyone back in here,” he says, looking up from his phone and tugging her from her musings. 

She looks around the room, realizing for the first time that everyone is gone. “Where did they go?” 

Jake shrugs. “Amy shepherded them all out as soon as you started yelling.” Rosa is struck with a wave of gratitude for Santiago. “I think they all still heard you, though,” he adds with a grimace. 

Rosa shrugs. “It’s cool. I was planning on telling you all soon anyway.”

Jake nods. “Okay, but if anyone gives you shit, I’ll punch them in the face, alright?” He pauses. “Even Holt.” Rosa has to stifle another laugh. First because Holt is gay, if anyone gives her trouble it won’t be him, and second because the image of Jake punching Holt in the face is absurd. 

“Okay, Peralta,” she says. And then, softer, “Thanks Jake.”

“I’ve got your back,” he says. “That’s the deal, right? And not just in the field.”

She nods once. “Me too,” she says. 

“I know,” he says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. 

“But if you tell anyone about this conversation, I can make it so they never find the body. Understood?”

Jake nods enthusiastically. “I got it, Diaz. My lips are sealed. I don’t need it getting it out that I’m sensitive!” Rosa just rolls her eyes, because everyone already knows that Jake is a giant marshmallow. She’s saved from responding by the arrival of the rest of the squad. A few of them look like they have questions, but none of them say anything, and when Rosa turns back to Jake, she realizes it’s because he’s shooting warning glares at all of them. She appreciates it, because while she knows she needs to talk to all of them eventually, she’s just expended so much energy talking with Jake, and she’s not ready to answer all of their questions yet. 

The silence is awkward, but then Amy strides over and drops a folder on her desk. “I could use some help on the Byers murder,” she says, and with that, everyone stops staring at her and turns to their own work. 

“Cool,” Rosa says, reaching for the file. “Thanks, Santiago,” she adds quietly. 

Amy gives one subtle nod, and then launches into a description of the case. “I’m almost positive the brother did it, but I can’t find any evidence that’s not circumstantial.” Rosa can feel Jake’s eyes on them, and she looks up to meet his gaze across the precinct. He grins at her, and for once she doesn’t stop herself from smiling back at him. He shoots her a thumbs up before turning to his own case file, and Rosa tunes back into Amy’s speech. “If we can just find the murder weapon, we can blow the whole thing wide open,” she finishes and Rosa nods. 

This murder is the perfect distraction, and it keeps her busy for the next two days. Amy never brings up her outburst (she does ask Jake about their conversation when they get home that night, but he stays silent, claiming it’s between him and Rosa, and that she’ll talk to Amy when she’s ready), but after they find a bloody knife under a dumpster outside of the brother’s apartment and it’s covered in his fingerprints, they all go to Shaw’s to celebrate and Rosa corners Amy. Their conversation is nowhere near as serious or emotional as the one she had with Jake, and Santiago doesn’t ask half the questions Rosa is sure she has, but it is much easier than Rosa prepared for, and she wonders why she was so worried.

It’s over in less than five minutes and as they clink their beer glasses together, Rosa tells Amy how Jake managed to bumble his way through a sincere, if long-winded, reaction. “You’re pretty lucky, Santiago,” she says. 

“I know,” Amy says with a dopey grin that makes Rosa roll her eyes in (fond) exasperation. Ever since they got engaged, they've been extra disgusting. Rosa is about to fake a gag in response when Jake himself appears. 

“And what are you lovely ladies discussing?” he asks, draping an arm around each of their shoulders. 

“Nothing,” Amy says, leaning up to plant a kiss on his cheek. 

“So I was thinking,” he starts in a sing-song voice, and Rosa knows she’s going to hate whatever he’s about to say. “We should go on a double date.”

She was right. “No,” she deadpans. Jake frowns, and Amy giggles at his face. 

“But,” he starts, but she cuts him off. 

“No way,” she repeats. “You said nothing had to change, Peralta. That means nothing changes.” 

He pouts. “But,” he tries again. 

“But nothing,” she interrupts. “I didn’t go on double dates with you with my boyfriends, so I’m not going to do it with my girlfriend.” She pauses then, because this is the first time she’s said 'my girlfriend' out loud, and she’s surprised at how easy it was. (Jake and Amy don’t blink, and that makes it easier.)

Jake does, however, use her silence to start talking. “I know,” he says, “But we totally just passed a friendship milestone. Don’t you think now’s a great time to expand our friendship parameters to include double dates?”

Rosa just glares at him. 

“Fine,” he grumbles, dropping it. He moves from his spot between the two of them to drop onto the stool on Amy’s other side and gestures to the bartender. 

She takes a sip of her own beer and glances around the bar. Charles is doing embarrassingly badly in a game of darts against Hitchcock while Scully simultaneously cheers on Hitchcock and shovels bar nuts into his mouth, Captain Holt and Terry are at a table sipping what looks like scotch, and Jake has received his beer and struck up a conversation with Amy, who’s smiling softly at him as he gestures wildly. Everything is as it should be, and Rosa feels content. Most, if not all, of the squad know now, and nothing has changed. Of course, Jake is pestering her about a double date, but she hasn’t dated anyone since Adrian, and she suspects he would be this annoying no matter who she was dating, man or woman. Jake was right when he said things didn’t have to change, and she feels a rush of gratitude for this ragtag bunch of cops who have become her family. 

She’s not sure who tells Captain Holt, but someone must, because a few days later she finds a flat white box on her desk. When she opens it, she finds a small flag, just like the rainbow one that lives on the captain’s desk, except this one only has three stripes - one pink, one purple, and one blue. She looks up in surprise and meets Holt’s eyes through his office window. He looks as serious as ever, but he inclines his head towards her in a subtle nod. She nods back and then returns her attention to the flag. Jake chooses that moment to enter the precinct, late as usual. Even living with Amy hasn’t curbed his perpetual tardiness. (She’s taken to leaving without him after he made her 3 minutes late last month.)

“What’s that?” He asks, bounding over to her desk like an excited puppy. She considers hiding the box, but remembers that she doesn’t have to hide from Jake or the squad anymore. Plus, the odds of Jake knowing what this means are slim. 

He peers into the box. “Aw, sweet. A bi pride flag!” he says with a grin. Rosa feels her eyebrows lift in surprise. 

“You know what that is?” she asks, gesturing at the flag. 

He shrugs. “After last week, Amy went into full research mode,” he explains. “There might be a binder at our apartment. A bi-nder,” he repeats, emphasizing the first syllable. He chuckles to himself. “Get it?” Rosa just stares at him. “Sorry, is that offensive?” he asks, sobering slightly. 

She shakes her head. “No, you’re fine,” she offhandedly. “I was just surprised,” she explains.

“Surprised that Amy went into research mode?” Jake asks, incredulous. “You know Santiago, she’s always gotta be prepared,” he tries to sound exasperated, but his wide grin gives his fondness away. “Oh! You’re probably surprised that I read it,” he realizes. She doesn’t outwardly agree, but that’s definitely part of it. He shrugs. “Amy made me do it,” he says. 

Amy chooses this moment to chime in. “I didn’t force him to do anything,” she says from her desk, where she’s been since ten minutes before their shift started. “Pineapples volunteered.”

Jake spins around, exaggeratedly furrowing his brows together and frowning in mock outrage. “Betrayal!” He squawks. “Babe, you’ve gotta keep my sensitivity on the DL,” he stage whispers. Amy rolls her eyes but doesn’t respond. “Ok, so maybe she didn’t force me,” he says, turning back to Rosa. “But it’s no big deal,” he adds with a shrug, looking uncomfortable. "It does mean I know what that means, though," he says, gesturing towards the flag. 

He leans over and plucks it out of its box and waves it around for a few seconds, grinning again. “It’s pretty badass,” he says, dropping it into the NYPD mug she uses to hold her pens. “Like you,” he throws over his shoulder with a grin as he makes his way to his own desk, where he sits down and immediately starts chastising Amy for throwing him under the bus. 

Rosa stares at the flag on her desk. She hadn’t decided if she was going to put it out immediately, unsure if she was ready to display her bisexuality this overtly. But seeing the flag there, nestled among her pens, settles something inside her. It’s the same relief she felt when she told Charles the truth, and again when she told Jake. It’s freeing, not having to hide, and she wonders if that was the intent behind the Captain’s gift. She's still pondering this when she looks up in time to see Jake throw a paperclip at Amy, who retaliates with a pen cap, and she smiles to herself. 

Things aren’t perfect. She still hasn’t come out to her parents, and she can’t quite predict how they’ll react. The world is still shitty, and there are definitely people out there who will make her life difficult. But here, in the 99, she’s safe, and she has at least one family who loves and accepts her, no matter what happens outside of the precinct. And for that, she knows she’s pretty damn lucky.

**Author's Note:**

> That last scene with the flag was inspired by @worry_guts's Instagram post. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine Instagram reposted it, and thus silently approving dad Holt was born. I hope you guys liked it!


End file.
